Cardinals, Seahawks try to emerge in NFC West

For the past couple of seasons, the NFC West has been the NFL's best division. But so far in 2022, nobody is calling it the NFC Best. More like the NFC Average.

The San Francisco 49ers lead the division with a 3-2 record, with Arizona, Seattle and the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams all 2-3.

"The division is wide open and our guys understand what's on the line," said Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury, whose team plays Sunday at Seattle. "We need to play better in a hurry and I know we're capable of doing that."

The Cardinals will be looking to get off to a quicker start, as they have been outscored 38-0 in the first quarter this season. They are the NFL's only team without a first-quarter point through the first five games.

Arizona fell into a 14-point hole last week at home against undefeated Philadelphia and lost 20-17.

"We've tried it all, but we'll keep trying," Kingsbury said. "It just comes down to coaches calling better plays, offensively and defensively, guys executing on a higher level and no feel-out period. Let's just play like we played in the second half from the start."

Going on the road might be an antidote for Arizona. The Cardinals have won both of their away games this season while going 0-3 at home, extending their losing streak at State Farm Stadium to eight.

The Seahawks lost 39-32 last Sunday at New Orleans despite another strong game from quarterback Geno Smith, who has an NFL-leading passer rating of 113.1.

Seattle's offense had four touchdowns of 35 yards or longer.

"It's a really fast progressing group and I'm hoping that we can keep making the plays and making the explosions that sets the field position in order and all that kind of stuff," Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. "It's a pretty exciting part of our team."

The Seahawks have scored 103 points over the past three weeks but only have one win to show for it. In large part, that's been because of their inability to stop the run. They gave up 235 yards rushing to the Saints.

"I just think we're going to get better at this as we move forward," Carroll said. "I would have thought that would be plenty of points to win all those games."

Whether the Cardinals can take advantage of Seattle's porous run defense remains to be seen.

The Cardinals' James Conner (ribs), Darrel Williams (knee) and Jonathan Ward (hamstring) all were knocked out of Sunday's loss, leaving Eno Benjamin as the team's only healthy running back by the end of the game.

"Just the way the game was flowing, I didn't really realize things until I started asking like, where are certain people at, I didn't see them anymore," Benjamin said. "And that's when they were kind of telling me that things were going down, and I was the one and I had to keep pushing."

Connor missed practice on Wednesday and is considered day-to-day, while Williams has been ruled out for Sunday and Ward was placed on injured reserve. Center Rodney Hudson (knee), cornerback Trayvon Mullen Jr. (hamstring) and kicker Matt Prater (hip) didn't practice Wednesday, with Prater ruled out.

The Seahawks' Rashaad Penny suffered a fractured fibula last weekend that required season-ending surgery. That means Seattle will have to rely on rookie Kenneth Walker III, who had a 69-yard scoring run against the Saints.

Seattle has been short some wide receivers at practice as Dee Eskridge (illness), Penny Hart (hamstring) and Dareke Young (quadricep) have missed time. Also sidelined were offensive guard Gabe Jackson (knee/hip), defensive end Shelby Harris (hip) and nose tackle Al Woods (knee).